INTEGER UNLIMITED

While they walked, Leo looked at his system screen to see what damage had been done. His mind panicked at the thought of having rained hell on innocent people. What he did find was thankfully not HUMAN x 195. It was something far more confusing.

[GRAYTITH, THE CORRUPTED | GAINED 100,000 EXP]

[GRAND MAGEBORN OF GRAYTITH | GAINED 25,000 EXP]

[GRAYTITH ACELIAN X 4 | GAINED 20,000 EXP]

[GRAYTITH MINION X 187 | GAINED 14,025 EXP]

Leo had, truly, no idea who Graytith is. Well, who Graytith was. From what his EXP told him, he just managed to wipe out Graytith and a lot of creatures related to them. He really disliked the vagueness of these names. At the very least, most of them didn’t seem “human-y”.

Whenever he killed something, it would just say what it was. The system never specified the name of any monsters. Except for one. David, the dracolich. The spike devil and hive lord were strong, but David was on a different scale of power. David was a calamity.

Leo guessed that either Graytith was a calamity or enemies of a certain strength were named. He hoped that Graytith was, luckily, another calamity. It was nice to think that he just killed a horde of evil monsters. Monsters that had no sentient mind and were formed from pure evil. Leo wasn’t sure if he believed that. He'd been feeling unsure about many of his beliefs lately.

Leo couldn’t get the idea out of his mind, but he knew that there wasn’t any way to find out right now. He would try to see if Marem knew anything later, and maybe the king knew something about Graytith. While his mind was panicked, the other two got to know eachother better.

The way she spoke managed to draw Leo’s mind away from his panic. He was drawn in like a fly to honey. Her name was Emily, and she was a confectioner of emotion. She’d been traveling to Edheim with hopes of making some extra money for her family, but with her product destroyed, she would need to go back home. The mage had cost her so much.

The mage. Leo’s mind had been occupied with the rocks and subsequent damage they caused. While the other two walked ahead, he was supposed to bring the mage. The shock of it all had caused him to leave him behind.

“Fuck. I forgot Malumo.”

Leo was sprinting before Marem and Emily could respond. That mage was an unstable danger that couldn’t just be left behind. If someone woke him, then who knows what he would do. This man had laughed while talking about murdering innocent people. Leo needed to get there before he was freed from Marem’s spell.

Sadly, he was too late. It only took him a few minutes to reach where they were. Even though he desperately ran at full speed, leaving deep imprints on the ground, the mage was already gone. They had even planned to tie him up, but meeting Emily distracted them, and now there was a psychopathic wizard out in the forest.

Leo’s heart raced as he looked around for any sign of Malumo. It hadn’t been long, so there was a chance he was still nearby. He tried to look for anything that would help. Even a broken tree branch could be helpful, but his training had been in fighting, not in tracking.

His searching didn’t find anything helpful. It wasn’t as if he was some type of primal hunter. He had nearly given up hope on finding the mage before an ever familiar screen popped up in his vision.

[Barbarian of Chains Feature: Unlock Hunter’s Scent]

[Yes/No]

It’d been a while since his class had offered a new feature to him. It normally prompted while he was in danger, so the sudden appearance came as a surprise to Leo. He was tempted to take the trade, but he had an idea before accepting.

“System,” Leo called out.

With his newfound information about the system, Leo had a couple of ideas. His hope was to be able to see the description of the ability before he bought it. If possible, he would even unlock new abilities with EXP instead. Leo did want his strength to go down, but he didn’t want to overuse the limited offers.

After waiting for a few moments, nothing seemed to happen. There was no response from the system. This was new. He called out and attempted anything he could think of. There was no way to access it while the offer was open. He couldn’t view his EXP, his stats, or anything that wasn’t the offer.

While they weren’t common, it was good information to know that these prompts locked him out. Especially since this menu required physical input. Leo decided to accept the offer this time. He didn’t love the idea, but Malumo had escaped because of him. He couldn’t continue to risk innocent lives with carelessness.

[Barbarian of Chains Feature: Hunter’s Scent Gained | Strength Reduction 5%]

The second he clicked yes, his senses felt completely overwhelmed. He staggered forward as the world began to spin. There was an overwhelming intensity with each breath that he took. He struggled to stand straight as his body got used to it.

While he fought to keep himself steady, the usual mark of a new feature started. He saw another golden ring start to form on his middle fingers. Thin chains burst forth and wrapped themselves around him. They went taut against his skin, and then all trace of their existence faded from view.

After a few more agonizing moments, he was able to bare himself as his senses seemed to calm down. This was when he realized what had happened to him. His new ability had given him the ability to follow the scent of Malumo. He just struggled to not smell everything in this forest.